Sixers vs. Hornets: Live stream, storylines, game time and more

Sixers vs. Hornets: Live stream, storylines, game time and more

The Sixers didn't have a losing streak longer than three games for the entire 2018-19 season. They'll try to move to 6-3 and stop their current skid from bleeding to four games Sunday night against the 4-5 Charlotte Hornets.

Bouncing back from a brutal quarter

How bad was the Sixers' fourth quarter against the Nuggets? Their 13 points were the team's fewest in any quarter since April 8, 2017. Of course, Denver also scored 35.

The NBA did rule in its Last Two Minute Report that the offensive foul called on the Sixers' final possession should have been a defensive foul on Nikola Jokic instead. That error might make the loss sting a bit more, but the Sixers made a string of mistakes to put themselves in that spot where a missed call could decide the game.

A win over the Hornets would help push those bitter moments to the side.

Another game without Simmons

Ben Simmons and Shake Milton are out of Sunday's game, Simmons with a Grade 1 AC joint sprain in his right shoulder sustained Wednesday in Utah, Milton with a bone bruise and mild left knee sprain suffered Oct. 28 in Atlanta. Both players will be re-evaluated Monday and are progressing well, a team spokesperson told NBC Sports Philadelphia. For Simmons, this will be the first time in three seasons that he's missed consecutive games. Without giving it much thought, we'd been able to pencil him into the Sixers' starting lineup the last two years.

Raul Neto started Friday against the Nuggets, scoring 13 points on 5 for 6 shooting and six assists in 30 minutes, and Trey Burke made his Sixers debut, posting five points and three assists in 17 minutes. Those two figure to feature again tonight.

About those turnovers ...

The Hornets lead the NBA in turnovers per game (18.6), and the Sixers are close behind at 18.5. Charlotte can chalk some of that up to young players taking on major minutes. While the Sixers have the excuse of integrating a few new faces into the rotation, plenty of their recent turnovers have fallen under the careless category — uncontested passes thrown out of bounds, poor entries into the post, leaps into the air on baseline drives without an outlet.

Joel Embiid had eight of the team's 17 turnovers vs. the Nuggets. Some of them were a product of his troubles dealing with double teams, but his fatigue also seemed to play a role.

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Philadelphians on Saturday flooded the streets in protest of racism and police brutality following the death of George Floyd last week. The sheer volume of the protesters was powerful.

Thousands of people in Philadelphia continue to protest racism and police brutality following the death of George Floyd. Crowds in Center City stretched from the steps of the Art Museum and past the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul. https://t.co/LlmPCHjz7Qpic.twitter.com/6YJT2DvCW7

Among those in attendance were Sixers forward Tobias Harris, who recently penned a strong personal essay on acknowledging and addressing systems of racism, rookie Mattise Thybulle, and general manager Elton Brand.

The Sixers shared several photos and video from the protest on social media. Thybulle and Brand wore shirts with the words “I can’t breathe!,” which Floyd said as police officer George Chauvin was kneeling on his neck, and which Eric Garner said in 2014 as he was being choked by NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo.

Harris’ shirt had the face of civil rights leader Malcolm X on it and the phrases “No sell out!” and “By any means necessary!” Thybulle held up signs that said, “Vote” and “We all have a voice — use it.”

The Sixers organization standing behind those protesting and actively seeking to amplify their voices is significant. The team on Saturday also retweeted a post by Glenn Robinson III with information about a fundraising campaign that his non-profit organization, Angels Are Real Indeed (ARI), is launching.

“That was something I was very, very nervous about,” she said. “What way can I do it where I’m not actually distracting from the protests? My goal was not to distract from the protests. My goal is to amplify it and show the positive sides of things, because right now I feel like they’re sharing a lot of negatives, like rioting and looting, but there’s also a lot of peaceful protesting going on.”

You can watch Ergemlidze’s interview with Farzetta in the video above.